1. Field of the Invention
Drum supporting carriage.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the past, excessive labor costs have been involved in the handling of drums in the 55 gallon size whether initially with new drum deliveries and receiving, or as they are returned by a user to a facility for cleaning and refurbishing prior to again being used. Also, excessive labor costs are involved in the handling of the drums after they have been cleaned and are forwarded to a manufacturer or packaging facility for filling with a desired liquid product.
A major object of the present drum supporting carriage that may be moved by a conventional fork lift truck is to reduce individual drum handling labor, minimize wear on the drums by chafing and denting, maintain the drums in an attractive condition, and substantially reduce the time and labor involved in loading the drums on and removing the drums from a vehicle that is used in transporting the drums.
Another object of the invention is to limit the handling of the drums to the operator of a fork lift vehicle and the driver of the flat bed vehicle used in transporting the carriage and drums as a unitized assembly.
A further object of the invention is to minimize the time required in the flow from a cleaning facility to a filling station to a customer, and minimizing the possibility of loose drum counting errors.
A further object of the invention is to eliminate three to five drum handling laborers to unload a truck and stock the drums, to reduce the hazard of injuries that is inherent in the manual handling of drums, eliminate drum stacking tunnage and chocking materials, reduce the area required to store drums, and reduce the incidence of drums being stolen or pilfered.
Yet another object of the invention is to confine empty drum handling to a one man left truck operation, and increase the speed at which the drum filling operations may be conducted.
Another object of the invention is to sustain the containment of empty drums before and subsequent to drum containment of the product and drum handling within the existent operational pattern of the drum supplier and user's facilities.